Life is Sweet: Jan 27, 2008

Jan 27, 2008

No school tomorrow..

We got the phone call a little while ago - the buses will not be running tomorrow so the kids don't have to go to school. Laurie was offered a ride by his girlfriends Mom but I doubt he will bother.....as far as I'm concerned school will be as good as closed because hardly anyone will be there.

Makes it a three day week though as the kids are off on Friday too.

The storm warnings continue...

The last few days we have been getting endless warnings about the weather...and a few minutes ago we got more....somehow I don't think I will be sending the children down to the bus stop in the morning at -40c and lower temps...and Lloyd is taking my truck so the kids get the day off of school on Susies birthday to stay home in the warm....Chris is quite happy as he hasn't done his math homework lol! Susie can spend the day playing with her birthday gift :)

Wind chill warning for: Leduc-Camrose-Wetaskiwin-Tofield
Issued at 7:58 PM MST SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2008
EXTREME WIND CHILLS TONIGHT AND MONDAY. THIS IS A WARNING THAT EXTREME WIND CHILL CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
AN ARCTIC AIR MASS HAS SETTLED OVER NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALBERTA. THE VERY COLD TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH A BRISK NORTHERLY WIND WILL PRODUCE EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES BELOW MINUS 40 TONIGHT INTO MONDAY MORNING. HIGH RISK OF FROSTBITE. EXPOSED SKIN CAN FREEZE IN 5 TO 10 MINUTES OR SOONER DEPENDING ON WIND SPEED. REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ARE OCCURRING IN THE COLD LAKE, FORT SASKATCHEWAN AND LLOYDMINSTER REGIONS. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS NEAR 10 CENTIMETRES ARE EXPECTED AND WIND CHILL VALUES WILL FALL BELOW MINUS 40. VISIBILITIES AND SNOWFALL ARE EXPECTED TO IMPROVE MONDAY MORNING HOWEVER WIND CHILLS WILL REMAIN BELOW MINUS 40 INTO MONDAY.

PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
Winter storm warning for: Leduc-Camrose-Wetaskiwin-Tofield
Issued at 7:58 PM MST SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2008
COLD WIND CHILLS BELOW MINUS 40 AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING SNOW ARE OCCURRING. THIS IS A WARNING THAT DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS...LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
AN ARCTIC AIR MASS HAS SETTLED OVER NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALBERTA. THE VERY COLD TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH A BRISK NORTHERLY WIND WILL PRODUCE EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES BELOW MINUS 40 TONIGHT INTO MONDAY MORNING. HIGH RISK OF FROSTBITE. EXPOSED SKIN CAN FREEZE IN 5 TO 10 MINUTES OR SOONER DEPENDING ON WIND SPEED. REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ARE OCCURRING IN THE COLD LAKE, FORT SASKATCHEWAN AND LLOYDMINSTER REGIONS. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS NEAR 10 CENTIMETRES ARE EXPECTED AND WIND CHILL VALUES WILL FALL BELOW MINUS 40. VISIBILITIES AND SNOWFALL ARE EXPECTED TO IMPROVE MONDAY MORNING HOWEVER WIND CHILLS WILL REMAIN BELOW MINUS 40 INTO MONDAY.

PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

So, my birthday...

Lovely day....woken up with coffee and gifts...all the children piled onto the bed to give me their cards and gifts.....

After that I spent a while taking pictures with my new lens :)

Got dressed and Lloyd and I headed into town. We sat in Starbucks and had coffee, chatted...then we strolled around Chapters and looked at the books and magazines.

Popped into Safeway for some swede and two birthday cakes - one for today and one for tomorrow. Headed to Blockbusters to get some dvd's. We bought Reign Over Me and Knocked Up for us to watch and we also got Meet The Robinsons to watch this evening as a family.

Despite being sent constant Winter Storm warnings all day, the roads weren't too bad.

Came home and I took more pictures with my new lens.....blogged a bit etc etc and Lloyd cooked us a GORGEOUS roast dinner with brussel sprouts, mashed swede, roast potatoes, roast chicken and gravy...mmmmm it was sooooo yummy. The children are now doing the kitchen together and once tat is done we will watch Meet The Robinsons. After that we will have birthday cake :)

The children have made their lunches for tomorrow and showered etc but whether they go to school or not is a different matter...they forecast windchill values in the morning of colder than -40c so that means they are at risk of frostbite after 5 - 10 minutes....maybe the buses won't run because of the cold...just in case...so we shall see in the morning.

It's been a nice day - I've been totally spoiled again :) Chris even gave me a gift of two mars bars and a version of Brain Age that I can use on the computer!

Lloyd is sat with his laptop watching youtube clips of Ferrari's.......men are so weird huh?

A rose by any other name.....

...would smell as sweet...

Balls!

I caught Lloyds reflection in my bubble ball ornament....

Fossil....

Ruby Slippers

I was wrong about the song it plays - it plays Somewhere over the Rainbow.....

snowglobe......

Oats and beans and barley grow......

More practice pictures

Practicing with my Nikon micro lens....this is a dried rose from a bouquet that Lloyd gave me.

You can click on each picture individually to see it up close.

Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead.....

The base of the globe turns to the music and has a flying monkey that goes around....

It goes with another snowglobe of mine that has the ruby slippers inside that the heels click together in time to follow the yellow brick road....

A sunset from last week....

Snowflakes on the window.....

Remember you can click on these pictures to see them larger!

Guess what I got for my birthday! :)

I need to practice with it, but here are the first pictures of snowflakes taken with my new Macro lens!! They aren't great because

a) it is FAR too windy out to catch any flakes on my black fabric....and as soon as you shut the window they melt and its too cold to have ther window open!

b) I was taking these through the dirty scratched window and using the trees outside as my dark background and with blowing snow they aren't very dark lol!

c) I didn't use my tripod and although I've never really used it much, for macro work I NEED to use it because the slightest movement causes blur.

d) its so windy out all the snowflakes are broken

e) these are the first pictures I took with a new lens so they wouldn't be very good anyway lol....but you get the idea of what a macro lens is capable of with a little experience!

Lloyd has now set my tripod up by my Poinsettia so I plan to take some pictures of that to practice with.

I also got the most gorgeous snowglobe with Dorothy and the Wicked Witch in it and it sings Ding Dong the with is dead......and the first James Blunt cd....and a BIG box of Purdys chocolates :) and a lovely fleece sweater from my Mom and Dad :)

And lots of lovely and funny cards :)

Weather is crappy so we won't be going bowling after all....we are still under storm watches for this afternoon and they don't recommend driving because of the blowing snow. But Lloyd is going to cook me a lovely roast dinner.....I'm going to soak in the bath and use my Lush bath products...and practice with my lens :)